The Boise Hawks had a few rough innings and lost this one 6-4. Felix Pena pitched five really good innings giving up no runs on four hits with three strikeouts. Hayden Simpson struggled and took the loss giving up six runs on six hits in two innings. Eduardo Orozco pitched well in his two innings allowing no runs on one hit and striking out four. Jeimer Candelario had a nice night at the plate going 2-for-3 with two RBIs. Stephen Bruno and Gioskar Amaya each had two hits, with Amaya scoring two runs. Dan Vogelbach and Wilson Contreras each a had a hit in the loss and Rock Shoulders was 2-for-4 with a double and an RBI. Marco Hernandez delivered a pinch-hit RBI single.

Daytona got down early, but Rebel Ridling and the bullpen sparked a 4-3 win. Ridling was awesome on Friday tying the game in the seventh and winning it with a walk-off home run in the bottom of the ninth. He ended the night 4-for-5 with a double, a home run, and two RBIs. Vladimir Frias also had a nice night at the plate going 3-for-4 with an RBI. Nelson Perez had two hits, including a double and a run scored. Rafael Lopez and Christian Villanueva each had a hit in the win. Kyler Burke got the start for the Cubs, he lasted four innings giving up three runs on six hits. Matt Iannazzo pitched the next three innings allowing only one hit and striking out two. Scott Weismann got the win as he threw the final two scoreless innings. It was a nice win for the Cubs as the season is coming to a close.

Tennessee continued to roll on Friday beating Pensacola 5-0. Chris Rusin started, but only lasted three innings not allowing a hit and striking out one. Nicholas Struck pitched the next 5.2 and got the win as he gave up only one hit and struck out six. Rubi Silva had a nice night at the plate going 2-for-4 with a home run and four RBIs. Matt Szczur had two hits in the win and scored a run. Junior Lake and Justin Bour each had a hit and combined to score three runs. Anthony Recker and Matt Cerda each had a hit and Jae-Hoon Ha had an RBI in the win. It has been fun following Tennessee the past few weeks as they have been playing some really good baseball, unfortunately it was a little late as they have been eliminated from the playoffs.

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The Iowa Cubs were supposed to play a series against New Orleans, but because of Hurricane Isaac the series has been cancelled and their season has come to an end.

Maybe Chris Volstad has found something. Volstad went without a win in 24 straight starts, over a full calendar year, he has two wins in his last two starts. Volstad was good today, on a day when the conditions favored anyone with a bat in their hands. He found the zone early and then pitched to his strengths after that, he finished his day after 5.2 innings giving up two runs on five hits while walking three and striking out two. Coming into this one I don’t think many people gave the Cubs a chance, not only are the Giants much better, but the Cubs were facing all world lefty Madison Bumgarner. As they say, that’s why they play the games.

The Cubs jumped Bumgarner early, as they scored once in the first and piled on four more in the third inning to take a 5-0 lead. The Giants tried to make it a game late as they pulled within two in the 8th but Carlos Marmol came on to shut the door in the ninth, again, he’s been outstanding as of late. Anthony Rizzo hit his first home run since August 5, no one believed it so they actually had to review it to make sure. Okay, that’s not really why, it was ruled a triple but replays showed it was gone, it was Rizzo’s 10th home run of the season, he finished the day 2-for-4 with an RBI, and two runs scored. Alfonso Soriano also had a big day at the plate, basically rubbing it in the Giants face, “you’ll never get this, you’ll never get this” Soriano was overheard as he rounded the bases on his 24th home run of the season. Soriano of course has said that he would prefer to not play in San Francisco if the Giants tried to trade for him, Soriano finished the day 2-for-4 with three RBI’s.

The rosters expand tomorrow, here is who you can expect to be called up this weekend, per Paul Sullivan

Today: Jeff Beliveau called up, and Brooks Raley sent down as Raley has reached his 2012 innings limitSaturday: Adrian Cardenas, Tony Campana, and Dave Sappelt will be called up.Sunday: Miguel Socolovich will be called up

Shortly after that Chris Rusin, Anthony Recker, and Rafael Dolis will be called up.

Big time contenders invade Wrigley today as Madison Bumgarner and the Giants look to keep their quest for a NL West crown rolling. Chris Volstad looks to build off his last start which his best start of 2012, by far, because he won. It was his first win in over a calendar year, he will try to get his second win in the last two weeks today. Here is how the Cubs will line up.

The tough thing about a one game playoff series is there are no second chances, and that’s exactly what the AZL Cubs wanted after this one. The Cubs committed six errors and were generally sloppy all night as they fell to the Athletics 15-3 and were eliminated from the playoffs.

Paul Blackburn got the start for the Cubs and was decent over the first three innings giving up three runs on four hits while striking out three. The Cubs were in a 3-0 hole early but got right back into it with two runs in the fourth to cut the deficit to one, unfortunately that’s as close as they would get. The A’s scored seven times in the fateful 6th inning that saw three walks, and two wild pitches from Cubs pitching. The A’s would add three more in the 7th and one final tally in the 8th to put this one to bed. Carlos Penalver had a great game at the plate going 3-for-4, but hit with no one on all night. Trevor Gretzky also had a solid game at the plate going 2-for-4 with a double and two RBI’s. Juan Paniagua was the bright spot out of the Cubs pen as he tossed two strong innings giving up one run, unearned, on one hit while walking two and striking out one.

Unfortunately the Cubs were not playing with a full deck as Shawon Dunston Jr. was unable to go tonight, I’m sure he wanted to but the organization was being cautious with him after he was hit by a pitch earlier this week. Great season from the Cubs, they crushed the ball all year, unfortunately they didn’t have enough to get past the A’s. Most of these players will head to instructional leagues during the off-season, we will keep you up to date on their progress all off-season and have a season recap in the next few days.

Boise scored two in the ninth, but it wasn’t enough as they lost to Everett 4-3. What else is new Stephen Bruno was 2-for-4 with a double and an RBI. His hit streak now sits at 20. Rock Shoulders hit a pinch-hit two-run home run in the ninth. Albert Almora was 1-for-4 with a double and an RBI. Dan Vogelbach also had a hit in the loss. Justin Amlung started and took the loss going two innings allowing one run on two hits. James Pugliese pitched the next four innings allowing two runs and striking out four. Su-Min Jung and Tyler Bremer combined to throw the last three innings, with Bremer giving up a run and striking out two.

Cedar Rapids put up four big runs in the 10th inning to beat Peoria 11-7. The Chiefs had a lot of nice nights on the offensively. Pin-Chieh Chen was 3-for-4 with two walks, a triple, three runs scored, and a stolen base. Wes Darvill also had three hits, including a double and an RBI. Jorge Soler was 2-for-6 with an RBI and Sergio Burruel also had two hits including a double and two RBIs. Zeke DeVoss had a hit and an RBI as did Jacob Rogers. Timothy Saunders, Oliver Zapata, and Bijan Rademacher all had a hit in the loss. Joseph Zeller started and pitched 6.2 innings allowing five runs on eight hits. Sheldon McDonald and Larry Suarez pitched the next 2.1 innings, but Luis Liria took the loss giving up the four runs in the 10th.

Going into the ninth tied Brevard County scored two and Daytona one, so the final ended up 6-5 Brevard County. Kyle Hendricks started and pitched four innings allowing three runs on seven hits. Matthew Spencer and Hunter Cervenka combined to pitch the next 2.1 innings giving up one run and striking out four. Eduardo Figueroa took the loss as he allowed the two runs in the ninth inning. John Andreoli had a nice night going 3-for-5 with a double and a run scored. Javier Baez was 1-for-4 with a home run and Christian Villanueva had a hit and an RBI. Rebel Ridling was 2-for-5 with a double and a run scored and Elieser Bonne knocked in a run with a hit in the loss.

Tennessee beat Pensacola on Thursday 4-2. Dallas Beeler started and pitched five innings allowing two runs, one earned on four hits, while walking two and striking out four. After Casey Harman pitched a scoreless sixth, Trey McNutt pitched an outstanding inning as he struck out the side and didn’t allow a base runner. Brian Schlitter notched his six save as he struck out four over two innings. The Cubs offense used the long ball as all four runs accounted for via the home run. Logan Watkins, Justin Bour, and Matt Cerda all connected with Cerda hitting a two-run homer. Jae-Hoon Ha was the only other Smokies player to have a hit in the win.

Thursday was not a good night for Iowa losing to Nashville 6-1. Yonner Negrin started and took the loss as he pitched five innings allowing three runs, two earned on six hits. Jaye Chapman struck out two in a scoreless inning of work, but Miguel Socolovich gave up three runs in his inning. Rafael Dolis pitched the final frame, not allowing a run and striking one out. Adrian Cardenas was responsible for the only Cubs run as he was 1-for-4 with a double and an RBI. Tony Campana also had one hit and he scored the Cubs lone run, he also stole his 18th base at Iowa. The Cubs had five more hits in the loss, as Thursday was not a very good night.

Time to play spoiler as the West Division leading Giants roll into town for a weekend series. Ever since the Giants got the news that Melky Cabrera was going to be suspended they have taken off, and now hold a four game lead over the Dodgers in a race for the Western Division crown. The Giants are getting it done with a balanced attack as they are right in the middle of the pack in runs scored and ERA in the National League. The Cubs are going to need to have a solid offensive approach against the Giants if they want to take this series. The Giants are a baseball team in every sense of the word, they play, and win as a team. If the Cubs can do the same thing, and have an approach like they did in the series finale against the Brewers they might be able to play spoiler. The team could look rather different come Saturday as the rosters will expand, Sveum has cautioned that there might only be six or so call ups, we’ll see, and of course keep you updated.

I mentioned while watching the end of the game, it really doesn’t matter what the Cubs record is, seeing them win a game like that is fun and gets you pumped for what this team could be one day. What a crazy day at Wrigley, haven’t seen one of these summer day games in a while. This one started out well enough as the Cubs jumped out to an early 3-0 lead behind a Starlin Castro triple and Anthony Rizzo double, then things got familiar. By familiar I mean bad, as in the Brewers started beating the crap out of Cubs pitching, again. The Brewers scored five times in the 3rd, and two more times in the fourth to take a 7-3 lead. They weren’t done there as they plated two more in the 6th to make it 9-3 and all but assured themselves of a four game sweep. Not so fast, the Cubs came roaring back in the bottom of the sixth inning, they scored six times on four hits to even the game at nine. It didn’t take long for the Brewers to grab the lead back as they scored once in the 7th and once in the 8th to build an 11-9 lead heading to the ninth. That’s when the Cubs of 2012 turned into the Cubs of 2015, okay I’m getting ahead of myself, but the Cubs ninth inning is exactly what everyone is hoping to see on a daily basis on the Northside of Chicago. Each guy worked the count and made sure that the pitcher was the one in trouble, the end result was a thrilling 12-11 walk off victory, the 50th of the season. The Cubs walked 11 times this afternoon, that is outstanding, a number of guys had tremendous days, too many to mention here, the box score can do the talking. I will say this, Starlin Castro had an outstanding day at the plate, not just because of the results, but because he worked every at bat especially in the ninth when he got down 0-2 before working the count to 3-2 and singling up the middle. Great win!

It doesn’t get any bigger than this, here is a reminder of how the AZL playoffs work.

The three division winners will be joined by a Wild Card team in the playoffs. The team with the best record will meet the Wild Card team and the other two division winners will meet in one-game playoffs. The two winners will meet in a championship game.

Here is a fancy bracket that I made.

It’s win or go home, the winner of the two games tonight will face off in the Championship Game. Both games are scheduled to start at 9:00 PM CST, we will have full updates. The Cubs and A’s have not announced starters yet, when they do I will update this post. Go Cubs!!

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